Martin O'Neill has revealed that he will thrash out his long-term future at Celtic over the next few weeks - but he has hinted that one condition could be the arrival of more players at Parkhead.

The Celtic manager has already held talks with major shareholder Dermot Desmond during his stay in Dublin and more discussions will take place in the coming weeks.

The sacking of Leeds United boss David O'Leary - and the speculation that O'Neill was favourite to fill the post - has placed his immediate future at Celtic under scrutiny over the past week.

O'Neill has already gone some way to ease the fears of Celtic supporters by insisting he will see out the year remaining on his contract but he has now hinted that club chiefs will have to work harder in order to keep him in the east end of Glasgow on a long-term basis.

He said: "I have said that, despite the speculation, that I was happy here, happy to continue here and see through my contract.

"Despite the speculation, that is what I have done. I am obviously looking forward to the start of the season.

"I'll finish all the things about it now by saying that I have spoken to Dermot Desmond - major shareholder at Celtic - in the absence of the chairman who is unable to get here at the minute.

"I spoke to Dermot yesterday, just to talk about anything that might happen in the future.

"I'm going to sit down with him over the next few weeks to take the overall view of what Celtic are, what they're going to do, their immediate future and, obviously, more long term."

O'Neill faced the assembled media for the first time since being linked to the Leeds job following Celtic's 4-1 pre-season friendly win against Irish champions Shelbourne at Tolka Park.

Hoops winger Didier Agathe admits the Celtic players are desperate to hold onto O'Neill as manager for as long as possible.

He said: "I am glad that he is staying, just as the rest of the players are.

"This manager brings me a lot of things and builds up my confidence to play at the highest level and all the way to the Champions League."